More Than a Raceway: Novel Presents a Jewish Side of Watkins Glen
The Finger Lakes region of upstate New York is known for Watkins Glen International, a race car venue that permits ordinary citizens to take three laps around the track in their personal cars for...
Author Tells How to Recognize and Treat Addiction
In a recent reading of the Scott Silverman book The Opioid Epidemic, this reader found the title a bit misleading. Rather than a book about the opioid epidemic the book was more a primer on...
Belonging: The Story of the Jews, 1492-1900. By Simon Schama
“SOMETIME, somewhere, between Africa and Hindustan, lay a river so Jewish it observed the Sabbath.” “Belonging”, the second volume of Simon Schama’s story of the Jews, begins with this pious waterway, and continues with...
A Survivor’s Trek Through Europe and the U.S.
In this memoir, nonagenarian Michael G. Kesler tells how as a teenager, he escaped both forced service in the Soviet Army and the Nazi invasion of his Polish home town by hopping trains with...
Jewish Family’s Anguish after Converting as Catholics during Nazi Era
Erika Hecht’s mother had herself and Erika converted from Judaism to Catholicism to protect them from discovery by the Nazis or their Hungarian allies, the Arrow Cross. Erika was enrolled in Catholic school, where...
Acceptance of Differences Is Theme of Children’s Book
Out of the mouths of….. seven-year-olds comes the impetus for Craig Pomranz’s new children’s book, Made by Raffi. This is Pomranz’s first foray into publishing, but the singer/actor/dancer is no stranger to the limelight.
The grandson of...
Children’s Literature: Bible Stories Retold
The stories from Genesis and Exodus are familiar to anyone who has read the Bible or attended Sunday school, but in making the stories more interesting for children, author Shalev, not unlike the midrash writers of old, has invented some...
A Jewish Odyssey from Ethiopia to Israel and Back
From Africa to Zion: The Shepherd Boy Who Became Israel’s First Ethiopian-born Journalist; a memoir by Danny Adeno Abebe; Yedioth Ahronoth, Chemed Books; © 2021, translated from Hebrew; ISBN 9789652-012869; 404 pages.
This is a...
Children’s Literature: ‘The Rabbi and the Painter’
The Rabbi and the Painter; story by Shoshana Weiss; illustrations by Jennifer Kirkham; Kalaniot Books, 2021; ISBN 9780998-852782; 28 pages plus historical notes.
This children’s book imagines a fictional friendship between the Mannerist painter Tintoretto and...
Tovah Feldshuh’s True-Life Role as a Daughter
Lilyville: Mother, Daughter, and Other Roles I’ve Played by Tovah Feldshuh; Hatchette Books; 2021; ISBN:9780306-924026; $29.
It’s hard to believe that Lilyville is a first book given its accessibility and universal appeal. This memoir of four-time Tony,...